This life I lead
by thehivequeen
Summary: Tony Stark isn't what he seems; he's actually a girl whose parents make her pretend to be a boy "for her own safety." Why is it safer for her as a boy? How will she cope with growing up, becoming an Avenger, running a company, and falling in love, all while protecting her secret? Inspired by the story "Iron Deception" by phantom-lass. Fem!Tony, Tony/To be determined
1. Chapter 1

**This story was inspired by ****Iron Deception**** by phantom-lass. You should go read it, it's quite good! Much better than mine, that's for sure! **

_**Disclaimer:**_

_**Me**__**: JARVIS, what are the results of the tests I asked you to run?**_

_**JARVIS**__**: Sorry Hivequeen, even with all the babysitting money you've been saving, you do not have enough to buy the Avengers from Marvel.**_

_**Me**__**: *wistful sigh* Someday, JARVIS, some day.**_

* * *

_January, 1986_

_Stark Residence on the outskirts of New York City_

Antonia "Toni" Stark sat on a soft rug in front of a blazing fireplace, playing with a _My First Circuit Board _(her favorite Christmas present), a miniature screwdriver in one hand and a look of intense concentration on her tiny, round face.

While only 4, Toni's parents had realized early on that the girl had inherited her father's genius and affinity for engineering. So, they had gotten her a _My First Circuit Board_ set, ignoring the warnings on the box that said it was for children 10 years of age and older.

Howard and Maria Stark stood just in the doorway to the adjacent room, keeping a watchful eye on Toni, while arguing in intense whispers.

"We've talked about this before," Maria whispered angrily, glaring at her husband fiercely, "and I've told you that my answer is no. There is no way that I will ever allow you to subject our child to anything as… as _demeaning_ as you are suggesting."

"Maria," Howard whispered pleadingly, "I don't want to do this either, you must know that. But it might be the only way to keep her safe."

"At what cost? She is just a child, smart as she may be, but a child nonetheless. Who knows what kind of emotional damage your idea would cause her, not to mention the scores of other problems that she would have to deal with if the truth ever came out."

"I agree with you completely, my love." Howard said, closing his eyes wearily, and pinching the bridge of his nose. "But under the circumstances, this is our best chance to keep her safe. _Please, _we have to do this."

A beaming, rosy cheeked Toni toddled up to them, tugging on her mother's sleeve.

"Come on! Come look at what I made!" She implored them in her tinkling little voice. The Starks followed her back into the other room, their expressions melting into fond smiles. They soon discovered that their precocious child had gone into the kitchen while they weren't looking, nabbed a toaster, then combined it with the rudimentary circuit board she had been tinkering with. The circuit board had been a simple system that, if put together correctly, had a light bulb that would light up when a switch was flipped. Toni had set it up so the light would turn on when toast was ready, and the toaster could be turned on and off with a flip of the switch on the little piece of electronics.

As the small girl started explaining how she had managed to make the "mega-toaster," as she called it, Maria caught her husband's eye over Toni's head and nodded at him, a single tear streaking down one cheek.

_If it's the only way to protect this amazing human being, _she was telling him with her eyes, _then yes, let's do it._

* * *

_September 1992_

_Stark Residence on the outskirts of NYC_

"Toni!" Maria called up the stairs, to where Toni was working in her attic laboratory. She sighed, Toni was playing her music at an extremely high volume again, so she couldn't hear her name being called. She walked up the stairs, and knocked on the door to the lab, wishing for the millionth time that she had put her foot down on the issue of home-made door locks.

Finally, the music stopped, and the door clicked open, allowing Maria to step into the cluttered room. Finished and half- finished robots and electrical devices littered the floor and various countertops, and there were tools everywhere. Toni sat at a desk, short black hair pulled back into a messy ponytail at the nape of her neck, a pair of gigantic goggles covering most of her face, welding some bit of electronics.

She finished what she was welding, and looked over at her mother with a slightly annoyed expression.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart, but the guests will be here very soon. You need to be presentable by the time they get here." Maria told her daughter. The girl sighed, looking wistfully back at her project sitting incomplete on the work table. Unfortunately, she knew that her mother was right, and got up to get ready.

"All right, I will be down in 15 minutes." Maria nodded, kissed her daughter on the cheek, and then went back downstairs.

Toni didn't brush her hair or wash the smudges off her cheeks, but she placed the big goggles—a present from her father—on the workbench and stripped down to a pair of thin shorts and a tank top.

She walked over to a plain silver container sitting on a table, and opened it to reveal four metal cuffs and one long strip of metal.

She slipped one on each wrist and ankle, and wrapped the metal strip around her waist, and then pressed her finger to one of the wrist cuffs, activating it. Thin metal strips slip out of each cuff, twining around her arms and legs and connecting to the strip of metal around her waist, encasing her body in a thin mesh cage of metal. Toni got some tiny metal disks out of a smaller box, and placed them on various parts of her face, the edges of her mouth, between her eyes, etc.

Suddenly, Toni wasn't there anymore, and in her place stood a little boy that looked remarkably like her. She went through her basic routine, twisting and turning her body, wiggling her fingers, and changing her facial expression, to make sure that the hologram was working correctly.

When she was four years old, Antonia Edie Stark had officially become Tony Edward Stark. Her parents, for mysterious reasons that they refused to disclose ("We'll tell you when you're older.") decided that she needed to pretend to be a boy. So, ever since then, she was always "Tony" while in public or while her family was entertaining guests.

Her family was very private, and her parents had kept her a secret from the outside world for as long as possible, Toni assumed for the same reasons that she had to pretend to be a boy. So by the time the press had finally caught wind of "The Stark Baby," all of her legal documents, like her birth certificate, had been changed to say that she was a boy.

Toni looked into a mirror hanging on the wall, at the little holographic boy named Tony. The Holo-Suit was a very impressive piece of hardware, and it had evolved as Toni grew older. The Holo-Suit had been very clunky when Howard first designed it, but it became more and more streamlined as the years went on.

The holograph "Tony" itself had evolved as well, aging as a normally little boy should. At first, Howard had had to reprogram "Tony" every few months, to simulate the aging process, but eventually her had written a computer program that aged the hologram at the same rate as a real human child would.

It would become more complicated to keep Toni's true identity a secret when she hit puberty, because while a 10 year old girls' body wasn't that different to a 10 year old boys' body, teenaged girls and boys had very different physiques.

Now, the only thing that ever needed to be programmed was "Tony's" clothing, but there were a few outfits already stored in the Holo-Suit's memory. Including the one that Toni chose now: a white dress shirt, a navy blue blazer, and khaki pants. It was her semi-formal outfit, and she always wore it when her parents had guests over.

With one last wistful glance towards her half-finished project, she went down the stairs to greet the guests.

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**So, I hope you liked it! Please, please, please leave a review! I would love to receive constructive criticism or suggestions if you have any! I don't have a beta, so there are probably a few mistakes in there **** Thanks for reading!**

**-The Hivequeen :3**


	2. Chapter 2

_May 1997_

_Stark Residence on the outskirts of NYC_

Nervously, Toni opened the envelope, her normally steady hands shaking like a leaf. She pulled out a piece of paper, with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's crest emblazoned at the top of the page.

"_Anthony Stark, we are pleased to accept you into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology starting in the fall semester of 2002" _she read.

She lit up like a Christmas tree, grinning so hard that it hurt, and even squealing a little bit. Her mother had been looking at her anxiously, but when she saw the happiness radiating from her body, she jumped around with excitement as well.

"I'm so excited!" Toni yelled. "Now I can go to college and learn even more about engineering and then I will go and work in R&D at Stark Industries, and it's going to be so amazing!"

_And,_ she thought to herself, _maybe now dad will pay attention to me. Maybe he can tear himself away from his work long enough to see that I am following in his footsteps, maybe now he will finally be proud of me. _

Maria sighed, wishing Howard could be here. She understood why he couldn't be, but she knew how much Toni looked up to her father, and knew just how much it would have meant to her if he could've been here to read the acceptance letter.

So, she tried to make up for Howard's absence by being twice as excited, throwing her arms around Toni in a gigantic bear hug.

"Now, let's start planning the party." Tony said, still smiling giddily. Her mother laughed, but inwardly worried a little bit. Her daughter loved to party, even at 15, and if she wasn't up in her lab building robots and drawing blueprints for missiles, she was off as Tony Stark, going wild at famous celebrity's houses and building a playboy reputation for herself.

Maria knew, of course, that the rumors of all the girls Tony Stark had already slept with were false, because, it would be physically impossible for her to do that. But the fact that she already had such a bad reputation made Maria worry about what she would do when she was in college, and away from whatever bit of control Maria and Howard had over her.

She shook the thought out of her head. _Toni is smart, I'm not sure why she is building this reputation for herself, but she must have a reason. I trust her to do the right thing._

* * *

_June 2001_

_Massachusetts Institute of Technology_

It was the perfect day for graduation: blue skies and temperature bordering on hot, but with a cool breeze to counteract the heat.

Tony Stark looked handsome as usual, thick black hair waving in the breeze (due to some of Toni's ingenious programming); with a hint of his usual smirk on his face. Toni was happy with how he had "aged," although she had had some hand in his programming once she was old enough to know how. She had simply changed some of his programming so he would be attractive.

She didn't feel bad about it, in a way, Tony was like clothing that she could take on and off, and many people preferred to look fashionable rather than unfashionable, so why shouldn't Tony look handsome rather than plain?

She had carefully cultivated her playboy reputation, because it gave her freedom she wouldn't have otherwise had. She had found that if you had a reputation for never entering into relationships, well, not that many people tried to get you into a relationship with them.

Plus, thanks to Toni's inability to filter anything between her brain and her mouth, she was always insulting people with her, albeit witty, insults. Most girls thought Tony was a douche bag, and just wanted to sleep with him because of his good looks or because of the reputation they would gain if they did so.

She didn't have time to deal with having a girlfriend, for a multitude of reasons, including the fact that she herself was a girl. She had always been attracted to men, so pretending to be in love with another woman would just bring up a lot of issues that she didn't want to deal with, including the questionable morality of pretending to be in love with someone. She had enough lies in her life as it was.

Toni craned her neck around, looking over the crowd of friends and family that were sitting behind the graduating seniors, trying to spot her parents. Finally, she spotted her mother, who smiled and waved, but her father was nowhere to be seen.

_Typical_. She thought, feeling a stab of disappointment. She turned back around in her chair to face the stage at the front of the audience, where they had begun calling out names.

Eventually they got to "Anthony Stark," and she got up and walked to the stage. When she took the diploma from the Dean (she had gotten two masters degrees, one in engineering and the other in physics), the crowd cheered louder than they had for any other student.

Toni grinned out at the crowd, giving a mocking bow, then shooting fake finger guns at a random girl and making a clicking noise with her mouth. The girl blushed bright red, and stared with awestruck eyes back at Toni.

Toni laughed inwardly, the only guy that could ever get away with a move as sleazy as that one was Tony Stark. She was sure that she wouldn't have been charmed by some guy pretending to shoot her with a gun. She waved at the crowd one last time, and then went back to her seat, already mentally preparing for the epic party that she was throwing that night in her apartment.

* * *

_March 2004_  
_Stark Tower (Stark Industries HQ), located in NYC_

Toni was in the lab at Stark towers, working on a new missile design when she heard the news. The secretary had come in with a stricken look on her face, and walked up to Toni, eyes welling with tears.

"Mr. Stark? I-I'm sorry. It's… It's your parents. They've been in an accident. They…didn't make it. I am so, so sorry." She said in a shaky voice. Toni looked shell-shocked, and she stumbled backwards, holding herself up on the edge of a workbench counter, before slowly sliding down until she sat on the floor with her back resting against the side of the workbench.

_Her parents were dead._

* * *

_April 2004_

_The Stark residence on the outskirts of NYC_

Toni sat and listened while her family's lawyer read her parents will. They had left her everything: all the real estate they owned, their stocks, their fortune, and most importantly, Stark Industries.

_How am I supposed to run a company? _Toni thought. _I'm only 21, not that age has ever stopped me before. _

It wasn't even a matter of age, really. Toni simply did not want to run Stark Industries, and she never had. She had always figured that her parents would live to a ripe old age, and by the time that Howard gave her the company, she would have done everything she had wanted to do and would be ready to run it.

But instead, 2 years out of college and in the midst of living her dream, she had to take over where her father had left off. She just wanted to work in Weapons Development, while designing her own projects on the side and travelling around the world whenever she wanted to.

_No,_ she decided, _there's no way I'm going to run Stark Industries. I'm just not cut out for that kind of work. I'm sorry mom, dad, but I am young, I don't need to be bogged down by what you wanted me to be. I'll just ask Obadiah to run in my stead, until I'm old enough, and have the inclination to, actually run the company myself. I know he will be happy to oblige. _

"There's one more thing." The lawyer said, snapping Toni out of her reverie. "Your parents made an addition to their will, only a few months ago. It instructed me to go into your father's desk in his office at Stark Towers and retrieve this for you." The man took a Holo-Tablet out of his briefcase, and handed it to Tony. "It appears to be coded so only you can view its contents. Now, I will leave you to view it in private. My condolences again for your loss. Your parent's were great people, the world is worse without them in it."

Toni looked down at the Holo-Tablet in her hands, and then set it down on the coffee table. She went up to her room, took the Holo-Suit off, changed into comfortable pajamas, then settled back on the couch to determine what exactly was on the mysterious device that her parents had left for her.

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**Hey guysss! Thanks for the reviews, follows, and favorites, it means so much to me! Hope you enjoyed this chapter as well! Please review :) ****Love yah!**

**-The Hivequeen :3**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello again! ^u^ Before you read, I just wanted to clarify something about the technology that Toni and others in the story use. I'm assuming that everyone has seen the Iron Man movies, as well as the Avengers movie, which is filled with these awesome, futuristic gadgets. Tony and the others are always looking at these cool holographic screens, and transferring images from one screen to another and interacting with the images(like when he works on Iron Man suit designs) with a swipe of his hands. I try to capture that in my story, and I made up a name for the technology cuz I'm not sure what it's called. So basically, if you're confused by anything, either watch the movies for reference or shoot me a review/PM, and I will try to clarify! :3**

**Anyhoo, enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

_April 2004_

_Stark Residence on the outskirts of NYC_

Toni held the Holo-Tablet in her hands, trying to muster up the courage to turn it on. Holo-Tablets, or Tabs, as most people called them, were basically just thin rectangular pieces of glass, that could be activated when the owner placed their hand on the , the Tab turned on, projecting a hologram onto the glass or into the air of whatever the owner wanted to do. It was a product of Stark Industries, and it could be used with a lot of other Holo-tech manufactured by the company.

She took a deep breath, then passed her hand though the Tab's empty center, gasping when a 3-D image of her mother was projected into the air in front of her. With a swipe of her hand, she had transferred the image to the coffee table in front of her, which had a Holo-Projector installed into its glass surface. Doing so enlarged her mother's image to just about life-sized, and seeing her beautiful face made tears well up in Toni's eyes.

The reached forward and tapped her finger onto the holograph, and her mother started speaking.

"Antonia, my beautiful, funny, brilliant girl. If you are seeing this recording, that means something happened to your father and me, and that neither of us are around anymore to tell you what you need to know." Her mother was looking directly at her, it seemed, and her eyes were filled with sadness. "We were planning on telling you a little after your 21st birthday. We would have told you on the day itself, but we didn't want to ruin your birthday. We know how much you love to party." At this, her mother gave a wry smile, and Toni a teary laugh.

"It's time that you know why we made you pretend to be a boy, and why you must continue to do so even though we are gone. It is a long story, so you might want to grab a snack, go to the bathroom, or-" her mother laughed. "-go upstairs and grab one of your little robots to tinker with while you listen."

"It all started about 10 years before you were born, your father and I were newly married, he still worked for S.H.I.E.L.D. as a research scientist, and Stark Industries was just a pipe dream. Howard and his team of scientists were working on some weapon or another; I don't really remember the exact details. Anyways, the weapon malfunctioned while they were field-testing it, and blew a hole straight into a different dimension.

What happened next was a tragedy of Shakespearian proportions. Howard and his team went through the hole into the other world- once they figured out that's what it was. The hole opened right into the home of another Howard Stark- the Howard that had been born in that alternate universe- who was the director of their version of S.H.I.E.L.D. Unfortunately, that wasn't the only thing that was different about this other universe. They did not realize this until later, but the other dimension's culture was completely different from our own. When they meet someone new, a friendly fight occurs with no weapons, just fists. First person to hit the other wins, then the fight is over and the two people are no longer considered strangers.

It goes so completely against the beliefs of our society, which, for the most part, prefers peace over violence. So when this alternate Howard first saw our Howard and his team, and once he had gotten used to the experience of seeing an exact replica of himself, he attacked our Howard. Our Howard did not know why he was being attacked, so pulled he out one of the other weapons they had been field-testing, and used it.

A real fight broke out, but as the alternate Howard had only his fists, he was losing the battle. When the battle finally ended, it was discovered that Howard had accidentally killed the other Howard's daughter from that universe.

In their culture, there is a rule that they use, much like the "eye for an eye" punishment of old. It is completely legal, and in fact expected, for the other Howard to kill our daughter. You had not been born yet, so the other Howard vowed that if we ever had a daughter of our own, he would kill her. By then, our Howard and the others had realized their terrible mistake, and retreated back into our universe.

Since then, we have sent surveillance through into their world, and they have done the same with ours. It was discovered that their world is decades ahead of us in technology, and if they ever decided to wage war on us, we would have no chance. They have the technology to destroy our world with the press of a button.

When you were born, we put up lots of security to make sure the other Tony would not discover you. We knew that if he found out about you, we wouldn't be able to stop him from killing you. But with a family as powerful and well-known as ours, we knew we could not keep you a secret forever.

Your father had a pet project that he had been working on for years, a Holo-Suit that would be the ultimate disguise. He realized that we could use it to conceal your identity. It took a lot of convincing; I did not want you, only four years old, to be forced to pretend to be someone that you were not—that you _are _not.

But, as you well know, we decided that it was the only option. I hope you can understand why we did it, and forgive us. We did It out of love, and do not regret making the decision. I am so glad that I got to see you grow up, and I am so proud of you. I love you, and I always will. Now, your father has something he wants to say to you as well. Goodbye, sweetheart."

With that, her mother disappeared, leaving Toni sobbing on the couch.

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**Soooo, what did you think? Did my explanation make sense? As I said above, ffel free to ask me any questions! I am always happy to receive constructive criticism! Next chapter, we'll gfind out what Howard Stark has to say! ;u;**

**-The Hivequeen :3**

**P.S. is anyone else watching the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary episode today? I am, and I'm super excited! Love me some Doctor Who!**** :D 3**


	4. Chapter 4

_April 2004_

_Stark Residence on the outskirts of NYC_

Toni looked back up at the hologram floating above the coffee table. Sometime while she had been crying, her mother's image had been replaced by one of her father. A mixture of anger and sadness rushed through her as she looked at his familiar face. She had always wanted to impress him so badly, but it always seemed like the harder she tried, the less he paid attention to her.

She reached out and tapped his image, bracing herself for what he was going to say.

"Toni, before I say anything else, I just want to tell you that I'm sorry. I was a terrible father to you, and now it's too late for me to ever start being a good one. I want you to know that I was proud of you, even if it never seemed like it. Every time you came home with a perfect score on a test or designed something new, my heart was filled with love and pride.

You are everything that I ever wanted in a child, son or daughter. Smart, strong, funny, and although your mother doesn't approve, I must admit that I was a party animal in my day as well. We have put you through so much, and you have done remarkably well under the circumstances.

I know I haven't spent that much time with you, or even really showed that much interest in you and for that I am truly sorry. I hope you can forgive me for everything I have put you though. I love you."

With that, the image froze and Toni was left feeling numb and exhausted. She didn't know how to feel, it was just too much information coming at her all at once. First her mother tells her that there is an alternate version of her own father that will kill her if he ever finds out her secret, then her father tells her he's proud of her.

_Yeah, thanks a lot dad. If you could take the time to make this recording of you saying you're proud of me, why couldn't you just come and tell me in person. _

She took a deep breath, swiped the hologram away, and then stood up. She had some preparations to make if she was ever going to get out of this whole running-Stark-Industries business.

_May 2004_

_Stark Tower in NYC_

Toni leaned back in her chair and propped her feet up on the desk in front of her, earning a disapproving expression to fleet across the red-head sitting in front of her.

"So, Pepper—is it alright if I call you Pepper-?—why do you want to work for me." Toni asked.

"Well, Stark Industries is the most successful company in the United States, maybe even the world, and I know that you could use my services." Pepper Potts replied. Toni raised an eyebrow.

"You do realize that I only run this company in name, Obadiah does all of the real heavy lifting. Oh! I know, you just want to work with me because of my dashing good looks."

"Yes, I understand. But the position as your personal secretary is the highest one that is open right now. I figure I can always be promoted later. And no, I am most definitely not here because of your…dashing good looks." Toni was rather impressed by the woman's honesty, and the fact that she actually seemed unaffected by the hotness that was Tony Stark.

_Hmm. _Toni thought. _She is quite beautiful. If I hire her, my reputation as a lady's man will be further cemented. _

"You're hired."

_May 2005_

_Toni's house in Malibu, California_

"J.A.R.V.I.S.!" Toni called to the AI that she had designed and installed in Stark Towre as well as her house just outside of the city. She had named him J.A.R.V.I.S. (Just A Rather Intelligent System) and had given him an English accent as a joke that he was like one of those butlers that you would always see in old movies. "Tell her I need to see her and that I'm in my lab."

"Yes, sir." J.A.R.V.I.S. replied.

Toni was working in her laboratory that she had set up in the garage. She had about a dozen really nice cars that she liked to work on to let off steam, and it was also where she did her weapon designing.

Over the last year, Pepper had become invaluable to Toni. She had quickly found that not only was Pepper good for her image, she was also extremely competent. Pepper basically ran her whole life, and Toni knew that she would trust her with it as well.

"You needed something?" Pepper asked, walking into the lab.

"Yes." Toni replied, feeling extremely nervous. She was about to tell Pepper something that she had never told another person. "I-I wanted to tell you something, but before I do, you must promise that you will keep it a secret for the rest of your life."

Pepper looked into her eyes, a slightly amused expression on her face as if she thought Toni was about to tell a joke. "All right, I promise."

Toni nodded, then disengaged the Holo-Suit, leaving Toni exposed in nothing but a tank top and shorts, the metal bands of the Holo-Suit slowly retracting back into the cuffs on her wrists and ankles.

Pepper gasped and stared, not believing her eyes. The person standing in front of her couldn't be possibly be Tony Stark. She was tall, just like Tony with long legs, slim hips, and small breasts. Her face was so familiar, she looked like Tony except in female form, and her eyes and hair were the same shade as Tony's were. She was gorgeous, eyes framed in long, dark lashes, full lips and high cheekbones. Her ebony hair has short and tied back into a tiny bun at the nape of her neck.

"Pepper. My name is Antonia Stark, but my parents called me Toni with an "i". For the past 22 years I have been pretending to be a man. My father, Howard Stark, made the first version of this Holo-Suit for me when I was only 4." Peppers mouth was still gaping open in disbelief.

"W-why? Why would you ever pretend to be a man?"

"It's a long story. The short version is that my father pissed off his alter ego in an alternate dimension, who vowed that if he ever had a daughter, he would kill her. Because said alternate dimension is light-years ahead of us technology-wise, my parents knew the only way to protect me was to make the world think I was a boy. I'm sorry I didn't tell you before, but I've never told anyone this before. And now, you are the only one I trust enough to do so."

"You were right to trust me Toni. I will never tell anyone your secret, I promise."

**Wow, I wrote another chapter really quickly! :D Basically, that's how I always work, I write when I'm inspired, then post as soon as I'm finished cuz I can't stand to wait until a certain day before I post again. It means that I am pretty erratic when it comes to posting, sorry about that. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, though it was mostly just filler. ^u^ Don't forget to review pleeeeaaase!**

**-The Hivequeen**


	5. Chapter 5

_August 2008_

_Las Vegas_

Toni was having the time of her life. She was celebrating a recent upgrade she had made to the Holo-Suit by playing Craps at a casino. Something kept niggling at the back of her mind; she was forgetting something but couldn't figure out what. Anyways, she was far too excited about the new Holo-Suit to care.

She had basically changed the whole design of the Holo-Suit, and she was quite proud of herself. With her new design, all she had to do was pour a small vial filled with tiny nanoparticles into her bath every month, and she was set. The nanoparticles would stick onto her skin as she bathed, thus allowing the computers inside the wrist and ankle cuffs to create a hologram that was much more expressive and realistic than ever.

Before, the hologram had relied on the thin mesh of metal that had covered her body, now it just read movement in her muscles through the nanoparticles that coated her whole body. The nanoparticles could capture every tiny movement that Toni made, then make the holographic Tony do the exact same thing.

Also, if Toni ever accidentally got a bit of dirt or food on her face, or if she got a cut or bruise, the nanoparticles told the Holo-Projectors built into the cuffs, and Tony would appear to have the same dirt stain or bruise that Toni did. It was a triumph of technology and science, and it was much more comfortable to wear than the old version, because now she didn't feel like she was in a tight metal cage all the time. All that was left of the old Suit was the cuffs on her ankles and wrists that actually projected the image.

"Work it! Come on!" Toni cried, rolling the dice and pretending to head-butt Happy, her head of security and personal bodyguard, when the roll was good. She turned to one of the scantily dressed women standing behind her and started flirting, until she was interrupted by Rhodey.

"You are unbelievable." He said, looking at her with a disapproving expression.

"Oh no!" Toni groaned, looking at her long-time friend. "Did they rope you into this? I'm so sorry."

"No one roped me into anything. But they told me that if I presented you with an award you would be deeply honored."

_Whoops, _Toni thought. _So that's what I was forgetting. _

"Of course I'd be deeply honored." She said, pretending that she had not known about the award at all. "And it's you, that's great! So when do we do it?"

"It's right here. Here you go." Rhodey replied, handing Toni a fancy glass award.

"There it is, that was easy." Toni replied, looking at the award. "I'm so sorry." She said in a low voice.

"Yeah, its ok."

"Wow, would you look at that!" Toni pretended to be excited by the award, and was pretty sure she did a horrible job at it. "That's something else. I don't have any of these floating around." And with that, she handed the trophy to the woman next to her and went back to gambling.

Later, as she and Rhodey were leaving the building, she handed the trophy to a man dressed as a Roman gladiator who was posing for a photo with a tourist. He would appreciate the thing much more than she would; sometimes it felt like she got a new award every other day.

As she got into her car, she heard someone calling her name. It was a blonde woman in a nice suit.

"Excuse me, Mr. Stark. Christine Everhart, _Vanity Fair_ magazine. Can I ask you a couple of questions?"

"Hi." Toni said, turning around to face her.

"Hi. You've been called the da Vinci of our time. What do you say to that?"

"Absolutely ridiculous, I don't paint." Toni replied, deadpan.

"And what do you say to your other nickname, 'the Merchant of Death'?"

"That's not bad." Toni replied, and it was true. She was a weapons developer; of course her product caused people's deaths. She wasn't guilty about this because she knew that her weapons were being used to make the world a better place. "Let me guess, Berkeley?"

"Brown, actually."

"Well, Ms. Brown, it's an imperfect world, but it's the only one we've got. I guarantee you, the day weapons are no longer needed to keep the peace, I'll start making bricks and beans for baby hospitals. My old man had a philosophy: 'Peace means having a bigger stick than the other guy.'"

"That's a great line coming from the guy who sells the sticks."

"My father helped defeat the Nazi's. He worked on the Manhattan Project. A lot of people, including your professors at Brown, would call that being a hero."

"An a lot of people would also call that war profiteering."

"Tell me, do you plan to report on the millions we've saved by advancing medical technology or kept from starvation with our intelli-crops? All those breakthroughs, military funding honey." Toni was getting annoyed with this woman.

"Wow. You lose an hour of sleep your entire life?" Christine asked contemptuously.

"No, and I don't plan to." Toni replied, and and then she got in her car and closed the door, instructing Happy to drive.

* * *

_The next day_

_Toni's house in Malibu, CA_

Toni was in her lab working on the engine of one of her cars and listening to _Institutionalized _by Suicidal Tendencies, one of her favorite bands. It was something she often did to pass the time; she would take an old broken down car, repair it, and then make improvements to it. Sometimes the improvements would be practical, like better mileage, and other times they would be completely silly, like the car that had a candy bar that ran on a series of pneumatic tubes and was stocked with over 30 types of candy. Now _that_ had been a fun project.

She looked up at a screen hanging nearby that displayed a 3-D model of the engine she was working on.

"Exploded view, please." She told J.A.R.V.I.S., and the engine on the sreen split apart to show its inner workings.

"The compression in cylinder 3 appears to be low." J.A.R.V.I.S. replied.

"Log that." Toni told the AI as Pepper came into the room, talking on her phone and turning down the music as she did so. "Please don't turn down my music." Toni said, knowing Pepper wasn't listening to her.

"You are supposed to be halfway around the world right now." Pepper informed her, sounding harried.

"Why are you trying to hustle me out of here?" Toni asked, still preoccupied by an engine piece she was examining.

"Your flight was scheduled to leave an hour and a half ago."

"That's funny, I thought with it being my plane and all, that it would just wait for me to get there."

"Toni, I need to speak to you about a couple things before I get you out the door."

"I mean, doesn't it kind of defeat the whole purpose of having your own plane if it departs before you arrive?" Toni said, purposely ignoring what Pepper had just said.

"Larry called; he's got another buyer for the Jackson Pollock in the wings, do you want it, yes or no?"

"Is it a good representation of his spring period?"

"Um, no the Springs was actually a neighborhood in East Hampton where he lived and worked not—"

"So?" Toni spoke over Pepper.

"—spring like the season. I think it's a fair example, but incredibly overpriced."

"I need it. Buy it. Store it."

"Ok. The MIT commencement speech—"

"Is in June. Please don't Harangue me about stuff that's way, way down…" She trailed off as Pepper continued speaking.

"Well, they're haranguing me, so I'm gonna say yes." Pepper was used to Toni's… eccentricities, and she had learned how to deal with Toni's unwillingness to accept responsibility and make her own decisions.

_She might be a genius. _Pepper thought. _But in some things, she's as helpless as a child. And just as annoying. _

They continued to talk over one another until Toni finally asked "What are you trying to get rid of me for? What, have you got plans?"

"As a matter of fact, I do."

"I don't like it when you have plans."

"I'm allowed to have plans on my birthday."

"It's your birthday? Already?"

"Yeah, isn't that strange? It's the same day as last year." Pepper was teasing now, she really wasn't all that upset or surprised over the fact that Toni had forgotten her birthday.

"Get yourself something nice from me."

"I already did." Pepper was full-out grinning now.

"And?"

"It was very nice. Thank you, Ms. Stark."

"You're welcome." Toni walked over to a cappuccino machine, picked up a tiny white mug, and gulped down the contents. "All right, let's go."

* * *

**Hey! Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! :D **

**As you might have noticed, I started in on Iron Man 1, and let me tell you, it's harder to turn a movie into a story than you might think! I have to keep flipping back and forth from the movie to Word, trying to get the dialogue right. This chapter alone only brought me to about 8 minutes into the movie, and the whole thing is like 2 hours! Basically, I'm gonna have to re-think my strategy a little bit. I'm going to do a lot more summarizing, and I am probably going to have to cut some scenes from the movie out of my story. I plan on continuing this story up through IM 2, Avengers, IM 3, then beyond. I haven't seen Thor 2 yet, so I don't know how/ if that will factor in. Plus, the fact that Iron Man is a woman in my story means I have to change some stuff (for example, in the movie, Tony Stark sleeps with Christine the reporter, Toni obviously cant).**

**All the reviews, follows, and favorites from you guys has really kept me going. Any of you guys who have posted stories on websites like this one know just how much inspiration can come out of 1 inspiring review. Plus, I always love any ideas you guys might have. Any suggestions, plot ideas, or constructive criticism? Please tell me! **

**You guys are the best, **

**-The Hivequeen :3**


	6. Chapter 6

_Several hours later_

_Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan _

"Is it better to be feared or respected?" Toni was standing in front of a large expanse of flat desert, with some mountains rising up in the distance, but her back was to the landscape. She was facing a group of soldiers, including Rhodey, waiting for her to start a weapons presentation. As figure head of the company, all she ever really did was publicity and foreign relations, just as she was doing now. Obadiah Stane ran the actual company; she just made the company look good. "I say, is it too much to ask for both?"

"With that in mind, I humbly present the crown jewel of Stark Industries' Freedom line. It's the first missile system to incorporate our proprietary repulsor technology. They say the best weapon is the one you never have to fire. I respectfully disagree. I prefer weapons you only have to fire once. That's how dad did it. That's how America does it. And it's worked pretty well so far. Find an excuse to let one of these off the chain, and I personally guarantee you, the bad guys won't even want to come out of their caves."

Toni gestured towards three gigantic missiles positioned off to the side, facing the mountains behind her, and they started angling upwards. After a few seconds, one of then fired up and shot away into the distance, where it split into a dozen smaller missiles and fell to the earth.

"For your consideration, the Jericho." Toni said, and dramatically raised her arms out as if for a hug as the tiny missiles landed all along the mountain range behind her and exploded. A shockwave came rolling towards them, the soldiers stumbled under the force, hats blowing right off their heads.

Toni walked over to one of the grey cases stamped with the Stark Industries logo and opened it. A mini bar stocked with various types of alcohol rose out, chilled air rolling out and cooling Toni's hot skin. She poured herself a glass, then walked away, soldiers following behind her. "I'll be throwing one of these in with every purchase of 500 million or more. To peace!" She raised her glass up, trying not to sound too sarcastic, and drank.

Obadiah called, and Toni chatted with him about how the weapons presentation had gone, then got into a Humvee. Rhodey walked over as if he was going to get in as well, but there wasn't enough space for him.

"Hey, Tony."

"I'm sorry." Toni said, teasing her friend. "This is the 'fun-vee,' the hum-drum-vee' is back there." Rhodey just ignored the teasing, looking as serious as ever.

"Good Job."

"I'll see you back at base."

They drove off, Toni still holding her drink, and the three soldiers in the car sitting in silence, shooting her sideways glances. After a while, she had had enough and decided to break the ice.

"I feel like you're driving me to a court-martial. This is crazy, what did I do? I feel like you're going to pull over and snuff me.' She just kept talking, because no one else in the car seemed to want to. "What, you're not allowed to talk? Hey, Forrest!"

"We can talk, sir." The young soldier sitting to her left said.

"Oh, I see. So it's personal?"

"No, you intimidate them." The soldier who was driving the car said, in a distinctly feminine voice, which surprised Toni.

"Good God, you're a woman. I honestly…I couldn't have called that. I mean, I'd apologize, but isn't that what we're going for here? I thought of you as a soldier first." And like that, the tension in the car was broken, and all of the soldiers smiled.

"I'm an airman." The woman said, and the man riding shotgun turned around to shoot a grin at Toni.

"You have, actually, excellent bone structure, there." Toni told the woman, still feeling kind of bad for saying that she looked like a man. "I'm kind of having a hard time _not _looking at you now. Is that weird?" The soldiers laughed, and the driver grinned. "Come on, its ok, laugh."

"Is it cool to take a picture with you?" The young soldier to her left asked.

"Yes, it's very cool." The soldier smiled and handed a camera to the guy riding shotgun, and scooted closer to Toni. "I don't want to see this on your Myspace page." She joked, smirking for the camera. Just as the soldier in the front seat was about to take a picture, the Humvee in front of them exploded.

The vehicle Toni was in screeched to a halt and the soldiers in the front got out, telling the young soldier, Jimmy apparently, to stay with Toni.

"Stay down!" He told her, grabbing her shoulder and pushing her down. Panicked, Toni watched as the soldier who had been in the passenger seat got shot, causing the windshield to crack. Jimmy cursed, cocked his gun, and got out of the car as well, yelling at Toni to stay where she was. He turned to go, but didn't get far before something exploded, killing him and leaving the Humvee riddled with holes.

At this point, Toni was pretty sure she wouldn't be any safer staying in the vehicle, so she stumbled outside. She could barely see through the smoke and dust, and her ears were ringing from the explosions, but she dove behind a boulder and lay down on the ground, dazed.

She pulled out her Holo-Phone, but didn't have time to do anything before a missile embedded itself in the ground to her right. Just before it exploded, she saw that the missile had Stark Industry's logo stamped on the side. Next thing she knew, she was on the ground, blood seeping through her suit and her vision slowly going black.

* * *

**Hey! So, my plan to not include every single line from the movie has only resulted in me deleting like, 2 lines :D It's just, the movie is so good and Tony has so many awesome, snarky lines that I want to keep! I will do my best, but it will prolly take me a looong time to finish IM 1. I guess that's not a bad thing, I just didn't realize when I started this story that it would be so long ;w; I've just had the inspiration to write the past few days, so I've been posting like crazy! :)**

**Thanks again for all your reviews, follow, and favorites! Every time I see a new one, I freak out a little and have to hide my reaction so no one thinks I've gone crazy. Well… crazy-er… :D**

**Love y'all so much!**

**-The Hivequeen :3**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey everyone! I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving!**

** I watched Thor 2 yesterday, finally! :) It was really great, if you haven't seen it I would really recommend it! As always, thanks for your support, I love you guys so much! :D**

* * *

_Still August 2008_

_Somewhere in Afghanistan _

Toni groaned as she slowly regained consciousness, reaching up to her nose and finding a tube sticking out of it. She pulled it out, wincing at the uncomfortable sensation. She glanced to her left, where a tin cup sat on a table, and reached over. Finding that it was too far away, she turned her body a little further, and noticed a man shaving in a grimy mirror. Trying not to catch his eye, she slowly turned over onto her side, only to find that something attached to her chest stopped her from moving any further.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." The man said. Toni rolled onto her back again, and then looked to her right to see a car battery sitting on a different table. Two wire were connected to the battery, and the other ends of them leading underneath a bandage on her chest. She ripped it open to find a round metal device that was inside her chest.

The man handed her a small mirror, helped her sit up, and then started cooking beans over a small fire. Toni used the mirror to look at the device in her chest more closely, noting as she did so that her Holo-Suit had stayed in place. She looked like Tony Stark, albeit a dirty, exhausted, and injured Tony. She felt a little bit better; the nanoparticles had worked like a dream.

"What the hell did you do to me?" She asked.

"What I did?" The man chuckled. "What I did is to save your life. I removed all the shrapnel I could, but there's a lot left, and it is headed into your atrial septum. Here, want to see? Have a souvenir, take a look!" He handed Toni a small glass vial that had 5 tiny, sharp pieces of metal inside. "I've seen many wounds like that in my village. We call them the walking dead because it takes about a week for the barbs to reach the vital organs."

"What is this?"

"That is an electromagnet hooked up to a car battery, and it's keeping the shrapnel from entering your heart. "

Toni shifted uncomfortably and zipped up the hoodie that the man must have put her in. She noticed a camera mounted on the wall in a corner of the cave, and the man saw her looking.

"That's right, smile!" He said, with a cheerfulness that was getting on Toni's nerves. "We met once, you know, at a technical conference in Bern."

"I don't remember." Toni said dully.

"No, you wouldn't. If I had been that drunk, I wouldn't have been able to stand, much less give a lecture on integrated circuits."

Toni had been looking around the sparsely furnished cavern, and she was dying with curiosity, so with her usual lack of tact, she ignored what the man had been saying and asked "Where are we?"

The man opened his mouth to answer, but before he could say anything, the door clanked and someone shouted something into the room in another language. "Come on, stand up, stand up!" The man hissed, and grabbed Toni's elbow, helping her stand. "Just do as I do. Come on, put your hands up!"

Some men in military fatigues entered the room, holding guns.

"Those are my guns. How did they get my guns?" Toni asked the man, hands clasped on the back of her head.

"Do you understand me? Do as I do." The man said urgently, ignoring her questions.

A bearded man holding a scroll of paper but no gun, and who seemed to be the leader, came into the room and started speaking in a booming voice with grand hand gestures. Toni could only guess that he was mockingly welcoming her to the caves, based on his gestures and tone of voice. Her guess was confirmed when the man next to her started translating.

"He says: 'welcome Tony Stark, the most famous mass murderer in the history of America.'" He then continued to translate as the bearded man spoke. "He is honored. He wants you to build the missile, the Jericho missile that you demonstrated" The bearded man showed them a picture of the Jericho missiles.

Toni barely even thought, she just answered. "I refuse."

After being dunked multiple times into a tub of water until she thought she would drown and having a burlap sack put over her head, Toni found herself being marched outside. They took the bag off of her head, and once her eyes had adjusted to the brightness of the sun, she saw that these people had a large hoard of Stark weapons. The bearded man started to talk to her again, with the man from before translating again.

"He wants to know what you think."

"He has a lot of my weapons." Toni replied, keeping her face devoid of any emotion.

"He says they have everything you need to build the Jericho missile. He wants you to make a list of materials, and that you should start working immediately and when you are done he will set you free."

Toni smiled and reached out to shake the bearded man's hand.

"No he won't" She said, still smiling.

"No, he won't." The man who had been translating agreed.

Later that day, Toni and the man, who said his name was Yinsen, sat near a small fire that they had built in the cave.

"I'm sure they're looking for you, Stark." Yinsen said. "But they will never find you in these mountains. Look, what you just saw, that is your legacy Stark. Your life's work in the hands of those murderers. Is that how you want to go out? Is this the last act of defiance from the great Tony Stark? Or are you going to do something about it?" Toni didn't like what he was implying. She had always been fine with manufacturing weapons because she had always believed that those weapons were going to be used by America's allies. She had not realized that it was possible for horrible men like her kidnappers to get their hands on Stark technology. But there was no use dwelling on it, she knew she wouldn't survive long enough to do anything to rectify this problem.

"Why should I do anything? They're going to kill me, you, either way, and if they don't I'll probably be dead in a week." It was true, the electromagnet in her chest could only last for so long.

"Well then, it's a very important week for you isn't it?"

Suddenly, Toni had a flash of inspiration—she knew how she could fix her chest and save herself and Yinsin at the same time. And their kidnappers had given her all the supplies that she would ever need.

* * *

_November 2008_

_Somewhere in Afghanistan_

It had been three months of hard work, and she was finally ready. She had learned from Yinsen that the kidnappers called themselves the Ten Rings, and that they were made up of a very diverse group of people. Neither she nor Yinsen knew exactly why they wanted with the Jericho missile, but that only strengthened her belief that her plan must work.

She hadn't worked on anything even resembling the missile, instead she had made a miniature arc reactor to go in her chest, and something else much bigger that was the key to getting them out. She had gutted some smaller missiles for the palladium in their cores, melted it down, and used it to create the Arc Reactor. It was a circle of lights with a triangle in the center, and Yinsen had helped her get it into her chest, which had been a rather painful process.

The Arc Reactor was both a blessing and a curse, while it kept the shrapnel away from her heart; she now depended on it in another way as well. It also powered her heart, so if she ever took it out, her heart would no longer have a power source and she would go into cardiac arrest. It was worth it though, to be alive and to have the chance to reunite Yinsen with the family that he was always talking about. Plus, it was nice not to have to carry that heavy car battery around everywhere.

Her calculations had shown her that the miniature Arc Reactor generated 3 gigajoules of electricity per second, meaning that it would power her other project, gigantic metal armor, for 15 minutes. That was just long enough for her to wear the suit and use it to bust out of their cavernous prison.

It had actually been fairly easy to build the armor without being caught. The people that were guarding them wouldn't know a missile from a cell phone, apparently, and they hadn't noticed that the pair weren't building the Jericho until it had been too late.

Toni woke up every day and congratulated herself on her genius- the nanoparticles had lasted through the last three months! The nanoparticles themselves were built to last, but she hadn't come up with a way to keep them on her body, which is why she had to take a bath filled with them once a month. She was pretty sure the only reason why they hadn't all come off her body by now was because she hadn't taken a real shower or bath since she got here. All she could do was use a wet cloth to wipe away the grime, and she didn't do that very often for fear of wiping off the nanoparticles. But it didn't matter now, because her plan was about to go into action.

The night before, a bald man had come in, and Toni had realized that the bearded man was not, in fact the leader. The bald man had gone on some long rambling speech about how he wanted to be the most powerful man in the land, and how he needed Stark weaponry to be that man. Then he had threatened to put a hot coal in Yinsen's mouth and told Toni that she had until the next morning to build the Jericho. Toni had agreed, because she was ready.

The big suit of metal armor was built, and she wanted to kick some Ten Ring ass.

* * *

**Hope you enjoyed it! Please review! **

**-The Hivequeen :3**


	8. authors note

**Hey everyone, sorry for doing this, i hate it when authors publish a new chapter and its not really a chapter, but i need ur opinions! I am having conflicting thoughts about where to take the story from here, so i need some advice! please review or PM me and let me know what i should do.**

**I have 2 options in mind, continuing along with Iron Man 1, or skipping ahead to Iron Man 2. I think I am going to introduce one of the other Avengers to the story during Iron Man 2, maybe as a love interest(any suggestions as to who?). I wanted to know if I should speed up the story a little and skip to Iron Man 2, or stay on the current path. Either way, an Avenger will b introduced in IM2. Please let me know what u think! thanks!**

**I also want to thank jamber17 for pointing out a plot hole in my story, I went back into ch 7 and fixed it! Thanks again, I wouldn't have noticed that without you! ;u;**

**I wont be able to post as often as before, at least for the next month, cuz its the last month before all my college apps are due, so im really busy! love you guys, thanks for 50+ followers! ;o; **

**~The Hivequeen :3**


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